The present invention refers to an airbag covering for an airbag which is disposed within a receptacle of the interior paneling of a motor vehicle, whereby an opening flap, which in closed position of the airbag covering is connected to the interior paneling through predetermined breaking points, is disposed flat at a hinged flap.
From DE 19940 984, an airbag covering is known which is formed as an integrated part of a dashboard, where a hinged plate of an air bag cover is connected across its entire surface to the bottom side of the dash board and where a deployment channel is arranged below the hinged plate which together with the hinged plate forms an integral part consisting of two integrated components.
In such an arrangement, the dashboard generally consists of an outer skin backfoamed with a semi-hard foam, and which forms the surface of the dashboard to the passenger compartment and a support, which forms the base for the backfoamed outer skin. The outer skin generally is made of plastic, which at lower temperatures is in danger of breaking and prone to formation of splinters. As a result, when opening the airbag flap, in particular in the area of the hinge axis, where the outer skin of the dashboard is buckled, an increased danger of splinter formation exists, whereby the passengers are endangered by the detachment of fragments of the outer skin.
In DE 199 58 865 A1 and DE 103 07 964 A1, air bag coverings are described which include support layers provided with predetermined breaking lines in the cover area of the air bag, whereby the airbag cover which detaches when the airbag expands due to impact, is connected via connecting brackets of highly elastic plastic material to the dashboard or a spar of the supporting structure of the vehicle. The connecting bracket has a sufficient length, in order to avoid that upon opening the air bag flap the outer skin of the dashboard buckles leading to formation of splinters. Such arrangements have however limited application since they can be reliably utilized only with relatively light air bag flaps of the type, as for example, in dashboards exclusively manufactured by an injection molding process. Should an airbag flap become heavier due to high-grade construction of support material, foam and an outer form skin, then only metal hinges provide sufficient security. Therefore, solutions to date exhibited sheet metal reinforcement for the air bag flap as splinter protection, whereby the sheet metal cover also took over the hinge function. A lifting motion of the air bag cover for prevention of a splinter break in the hinge area of the dashboard is realized, in that the second hinge plate is tied by rivets at the deployment channel, wherein these rivets are received in elongated holes, which facilitate a controlled gliding motion of the hinge plate relative to the deployment channel upon unfolding of the airbag.
Such embodiments have however the disadvantage of being constructed from many single parts thus leading to a considerable assembly effort, which because of its security implications has to be extensively monitored and documented.